Evil's Shadow
by Endigo Master
Summary: Takes place shortly after Heroes. Shadow has been betrayed by Omega, who is now under the repaired Metal Sonic's control. With the help of his new friends, Shadow plasns to get revenge, no matter what it takes.
1. Prologue

Alright, before beginning, here are the two fan characters currently featured:

Name: Endigo Age: 18 Lives in: Salrose Desert Likes: playing guitar, sprite comics, fighting, flying Dislikes: complicated things Species: Fox Appearance: indigo fur with white on chest and tip of tail. Jet black gloves and sneakers. Usually carries his guitar with him, strapped around his back.  
Bio: Endigo is a fast learner, but not as smart as his roommate. Loves playing the guitar more than anything else. His childhood was filled with bad memories, his parents dying when he was 12. He knows how to fight when he needs to, but prefers not to. Makes his living by writing for the Station Square Newspaper.

Name: Funk (from el knackered one's profile)  
age: 18 lives in: Salrose Desert likes: inventing stuff, watching TV, video games, programming stuff, sleeping dislikes: doing work gender: male species: echidna Appearance: dark blue fur. he has a brown hat on his head. funk has olive green gloves and jet shoes like shadows. he also has a belt with two hand guns in it.  
bio: Funk is smarter than Eggman or Tails when it comes to machines. He has a robotic eye which he invented when he lost his real one. He is strong but not as strong as knuckles. He isn't naturally fast but he made special shoe that make him run fast. but not as fast as Sonic Tails or Knuckles. He gets mad easily and almost always resorts to violence. Makes a living by creating a selling his inventions.

Prologue

Endigo fiddled with the remote, trying to get it to work. However, he had no clue how to work it. Suddenly, his friend Funk grabbed it from him. "Endigo, it really isn't that hard to manage. You push green, circle, A, R7, blue, blue, red when you want the garage door to open. I really don't see why you can't remember that."

The fox frowned at the inventive echidna. "You know, I'm not exactly a super genius like you, Funk. My mind can't remember what song played at three o clock, seven months ago."

"I'm going to ignore that insult because you're my friend. Look, I'm sorry that you're not smart, but what do you expect to happen when you make a super universal remote to control everything in your house. Commands get complicated."

"Whatever. Could you just get the door open? I need to get into town and pick up some groceries."

"Yeah, one second." Funk quickly typed in the code, throwing the remote back to Endigo when he was finished. "Anyway, to start the ship, you press-" Endigo growled slightly. "Or, you could just press the ignition button hidden under the passenger's seat."

"Funk, I'll be gone a few hours, so could you try making the place a little less code activated while I'm gone."

"I'll see what I can do." as Endigo climbed into the dark blue bi-plane, similar to the Tornado, Funk made his way back into the house. Whenever anyone took off, the air was filled with sand as it was blown up by the take off. After the air settled, Funk made his way back outside. "It would probably only take a few days of intense study for him to figure it out. Oh well."

Funk was about to work on the wiring of the house, when he saw something far off in the desert. He blocked out the sun with his hand, squinting a little. He was able to make out a single figure, who was heading for the house. It was a black hedgehog, walking with his shoulders slouched and head hanging low.

"What the heck is that guy doing in the middle of the desert?" Funk began to run out to the hedgehog, his jet shoes activating. After a few seconds, he reached the lone figure. "Hey, are you alright, dude?"

The black hedgehog looked at Funk with bloodshot eyes. "M…Metal… betr…" before he could say anymore, he fainted. Funk caught him, looking him over. There were cuts and bruises all over his body, and Funk noticed his shoes were completely destroyed, wires going everywhere.

"This guy looks familiar. I know I've seen him somewhere before, but where?" the blue furred echidna shook off the feeling. "That doesn't matter right now. I should get this guy to the house until Endigo gets back. Then we can take him to the hospital in town." the echidna began to make his way back to the house, not realizing the eyes watching him.

Next: Desert Battle: Protecting Shadow

El knackered, hope you don't mind me using Funk again. ;)

Also, I could use a little help with characters. I need minions for the bad guy, Metal Sonic, and a girl character for the good guys. Please review if you've read. Hope you enjoyed! 


	2. Desert Battle: Protect Shadow

Thanks to all the people that reviewed! Also, thanks Celestial, for helping with the female character.

Name: Celestial Age: 19 Species: Hedgehog and bird hybrid Appearance: a black hedgehog with magenta streaks in her quills, which border her face. She has a three quill fringe which covers up her left eye. Eye color is a bright teal. She also has pale pink bird wings and black bird feet with sharp talons, used for attacking enemies in battle.  
Clothing: Usually wears blue flared jeans and a white tube top that hugs her body, along with a jean jacket and a seemingly harmless bracelet on each of her wrists. She never wears shoes, as she prefers to have her talons showing at all times. Weapon: Both bracelets hold a concealed blade that extends from the middle Abilities: She is relatively fast, and can run near .8 times the speed of sound. While flying she can break the sound barrier, though it takes a strong effort to do so. She is a okay with physical fighting, not the best but better than average. Personality: She has a terrible attitude, getting angry very quickly and calming down very slowly. She holds grudges and keeps promises close to the heart, and when they are broken she can't stand the person who broke it. She prefers a free life style, doing what she wants, when she wants. She is also a feminist. History: GUN created her from a fusion of Shadow and Amy DNA, giving her a melted Super Emerald for blood and hence both giving her power and large weaknesses. Attempting to keep her growing hatred of GUN in check they implanted an obedience chip within her mind, forcing her to obey them no matter what. Changing continued after that, and anger in sued that she couldn't get near a Chaos Emerald without receiving power surges that nearly killed her and destroyed the area around her. She slowly developed acute senses of sight and hearing, as well as a strange ability to create and manipulate electricity, however she cannot truly control these powers. After a particularly terrible power surge Celestial managed to escape GUN's clutches, but soon found herself on the run. She now roams areas around Station Square, attempting to gain control of her powers and freedom. (Made to destroy Shadow, though this proved to do nothing more than make her uncomfortable around his DNA at times)

Chp 01: Desert Battle: Protecting Shadow

Salrose Desert

Funk yawned, fiddling with his remote control. It had been about an hour since he had gotten the hedgehog into one of his regeneration tubes, which he had stored in the basement. Now, he was trying to figure out a way to make the remote easier for Endigo to use. He was pulled out of his thought when he heard the doorbell ring. "I guess Endigo's back already." he heard the doorbell ring a second time, then a third and fourth time together. "I should probably start by making it easy to open the door without this thing." he walked to the door, typing in another code as he did.

As the door came open, a fist shot forward, colliding hard with Funk's chest, sending him back through the house and to the other side, crashing through a window. As he tumbled through the sands, a large cloud of dust formed.

The one who had hit him made his way around to the other side. He was a rather tall armadillo, his body fur and shell both an electric green. His red eyes stayed focused on the dust cloud as he walked towards it, his fists opening to reveal a pair of metallic claws attached to his fingers.

A pair of bullets came out of the smoke, both hitting the armadillo in the head. Funk came walking out of the cloud, his guns out and aimed for the armadillo. "You really made a mistake with that move." Suddenly, the armadillo flung itself forward, prepared to strike. "What the-" the echidna jumped to the side, his clawed attacker shooting past. "I shot him straight in the head!" Funk smiled, realizing something. "Ah, so you're an android, huh, buddy?"

"That's right." the armadillo said in a deep, smooth voice. "My master has told me to find Shadow the Hedgehog, and eliminate all who get in my way."

"So that's where I've seen him before!" Funk exclaimed. "He's one of the Sonic Heroes. Wait. What do you want with him? And exactly who are you?"

"My name is Feral. And my reasons are because Master Metal Sonic wishes so. Now, I may let you live, if you give up Shadow easily."

Funk chuckled. "You know, Feral, I wish I could, but I sort of have a policy against helping people who plan to eliminate me. And people who have really bad fur color."

"An insult. I hope that you're okay with those being your last words!" Feral charged forward.

Station Square

"Alright, I'm really not sure how to do this without screwing up." Endigo said to himself. Whenever he flew in Funk's biplane, the thing would spin when he flew in it. It wasn't that he didn't like spinning, but anything that wasn't welded down would fall out. And he couldn't put the groceries in the trunk, since it was hooked up to that stupid remote. "I have got to destroy that thing."

"Hey, Endigo."

"Huh?" Endigo turned to see Celestial. "Oh, hey Celestial, what are you doing out and about?"

"Oh, nothing much, just enjoying the town."

"Yeah, because Station Square is such a beautiful town." Endigo chuckled.

"Come on. So it's not the best place in the world. So what? It's still a great place to live."

"I wouldn't know. You know I live in the desert."

"Yeah, but you work here in the city. And honestly, could you really give up the city to stay out there in the desert?" Endigo though on this for a moment.

"Would Funk be there?"

"Ha Ha Ha." Celestial said, sarcastically, but a smile still on her face. "Funk's not that bad. I mean, he has his quirks, but, he has good qualities, like… um… well… he has a cool hat."

"I know he's a good guy, but sometimes I wish he was a little less smart. Have you seen that remote?"

"What?"

"Nothing." Endigo then got an idea. "Celestial, do you think you can help me with something?"

Salrose Desert

Funk was thrown hard into the side of the house. He slid to the ground, struggling to get up due to blood running down his leg from where Feral had grabbed him. "Dang it, this is really not good." he finally was able to charge forward again, striking Feral hard in the face with his gun. He followed with a hard kick to the armadillo's face, knocking him back.

"You're good, echidna, but you won't last much longer."

"And what makes you so sure about that? I'd say we're pretty evenly matched."

"That would be considered flawed logic, considering that you have taken heavy damage, while I have taken little, if any."

"You're pretty full of yourself, Feral." Funk said, breathing heavily. The blue echidna hated to admit it, but he knew what the armadillo was saying was true. He didn't have much energy left, he was bleeding heavily, and he was out of ammo. He was lucky to have been going the past ten minutes.

"I can see it in your eyes, echidna. You know I'm right. So I suggest you give me Shadow before-" Feral's eyebrow raised. He put his hand against his ear. "Yes, master… What, but I… But master, I can simply…Yes, master." the armadillo looked back to Funk, hate in his eyes. You've just been saved, echidna. My master has called me off, for now anyway. So enjoy what time you have left." with that, Feral sunk into the sand, disappearing.

"Probably faked it, just so he wouldn't have to mess with me." Funk chuckled shallowly, just before falling backwards, fainting. 


	3. Awakening

Chp 02: Awakening

Mystic Mansion

Feral walked down the main hall of the large building where his master had set up base. He was still angry that he had been called back. "I could've been out of there in a few seconds. I just had to smack that stupid echidna around a few more times and I would have been able to grab Shadow. I would have been gone long before any plane arrived."

"Aw, is Feral sad?" the armadillo turned angrily, seeing a black bat, his wings silver . He was wearing a white lab coat and a pair of goggles were right above his eyes.

"Shut up, Rook." Feral growled, striking at the bat, who easily jumped back.

"Come now, Feral, you really shouldn't be striking out a the person who saved you."

"Oh, you told me that a plane was coming. So what? Anyone could have been using that plane, and they could have been going anywhere."

"It was a biplane, low on gas, so it must have been going somewhere close by. And since that was the only place for thirty miles, that's where it would need to go. Also, there was a hybrid creature of some kind flying next to the plane, and it had trace amounts of Super Emerald energy. I just figured it would be smart to get you out of there."

"You just couldn't stand that one of your creations was going to show you up. That's the real reason, right?"

"Silence, both of you." came a harsh, robotic voice. The two looked to see their metallic blue master walking towards them. His speech was also more human like, thanks to an upgrade. "It was I who made the final choice in the matter, Feral, so I suggest you leave Rook to his work." Metal Sonic looked to the bat. "Go back to the lab and continue upgrading Omega."

"Yes, Master Metal." Rook turned on his heels and walked back towards his workplace.

"As for you, Feral, I expect you to be a little more respectful of my wishes. We shall get Shadow, but I do not want to lose my minions in the process."

"I am sorry, Master Metal."

"Just learn from your mistakes, Feral. I will not be forgiving next time." Metal Sonic began to walk back to his control room.

"Yes, Master Metal." Feral said calmly, hiding his anger.

Salrose Desert

Funk awoke slowly, trying to remember what had happened. He burst up from his bed when the battle returned to his head, pulling his guns out.

"Uh, Funk, do you think you could put those away." Endigo said, being the one they were pointed at.

"Huh? Oh, Endigo, sorry!" he put the pistols back into the belt loops. "The last thing I remembered was-"

"Fighting somebody?"

"How'd you know?"

"Celestial and I found you beaten and bruised in the back, all bloody. We were lucky that window was broken. Otherwise, we would have had to figure out that damn remote of yours."

"Don't knock it, until you've tried it."

"I have tried it. I hate it."

"Whatever. Well, thanks for not taking me to the hospital. I've never had to use my health insurance before, so I don't want to start now."

"But you don't have health insurance. And we were planning to take you, but I didn't want to chance you accidentally falling out."

"Hey, if I need to get healed I can… oh, crap, Shadow's still in the basement!" Funk got up, only to find his left leg was numb and broken. He fell back into the bed. "Endigo, can you go into the basement and release the black hedgehog from the regeneration tube."

"We have a regeneration tube? See, I could have put you in there in the first place if you had told me we had-"

"Do it now!" Endigo jumped from his chair, heading out of the room.

"How's he doing?" Celestial asked as Endigo entered the living room.

"Something about a hedgehog in the basement." the fox, followed by the hedgird, headed down the stairs into the room where Funk kept all of his inventions. "Oh my god." he was referring to the tube, which currently held Shadow the Hedgehog.

"Is this why Funk was so beat it up? He must have been protecting Shadow."

"Whatever reason, he said to let him out." Endigo walked up to the tube and looked at the console pad, which looked even more confusing than th remote Funk used. "Dang it, Funk, can't you do anything simple!"

"Shut up!" they heard Funk shout from upstairs.

"You know, there's an open button right here." Celestial said, pushing the blue button. Endigo chuckled weakly, feeling stupid. As the tube drained of the regenerative liquid, it began to hiss, the air tight locks releasing. As the tube finally opened, so did Shadow's eye.

"Where am I? Last thing I remember…" as his vision finished clearing, he stopped, seeing Celestial. He sensed what was running through her body, and made a mistake. "Get away from me!" he charged at her, his armj going aound her neck. He slammed her into one of the walls. "I won't let you kill me!"

Endigo was shocked, not knowing what to do.

To Be Continued…

Announcement in my profile. 


	4. Confrontations

Chapter 03: Confrontations

Salrose Desert- Basement

Celestial struggled, trying to pull Shadow's hand from her neck. Both of her hands were wrapped around his, attempting to allow a breath to return. It was doing no good though, Shadow's grip only getting tighter, his icy gaze staying on the flailing hedgird.

Endigo was lost at what to do. He really didn't think he could take on a being who was known as the ultimate life form. Doing all he could think of, he asked, "Shadow, what are you doing to her?"

Without looking from Celestial, he replied, "This creature was created with the sole purpose of destroying me. If you think that I am going to let her down, you're crazy."

"Come on, Shadow. Celestial wouldn't hurt you." suddenly, the hedgird's foot swung loose, her talon burying itself into Shadow's side. The black hedgehog's grip loosened, giving Celeste a chance to head butt him back, sending him through the regeneration tube. Shadow landed hard, covered by a rain of glass from the tube. Endigo was a bit surprised. "Okay, she wouldn't hurt you unprovoked."

Shadow tried to get to his feet, but he found that he wasn't completely regenerated. He was breathing heavily, trying to lift his head enough to see more than his opponent's feet. "Stay back, you dirty puppet."

"What did you say?" she replied, her eyes becoming slits.

"You heard me. You're nothing but a puppet of GUN, and nothing more. And if you think I'll be killed by a filthy creation like you, then-" before he could finish, Celestial had shot across the basement, driving her talons into his chest, pushing him into the ground. She stood on him, a dark look on her face.

"Don't you dare call me that. I know what I was created for, and who I was created by, but I do NOT, in any way, work with those GUN bastards."

"Celestial, maybe you should let him up now." Endigo said, trying to reason with her. "It probably isn't a good idea to be going at it with this guy. He is pretty powerful."

"And I was created to kill him." blood was beginning to pool up around her talons. She stared down at Shadow darkly. "Apologize, you worthless hedgehog."

"What the hell are you doing!" Funk shouted angrily. The fox and hedgird looked up the stairway to see the dark blue echidna, supported by a pair of crutches. His gaze was fiery, enraged by what he was seeing. "Celestial, get off of him, now!"

Reluctantly, she pulled her talons out of Shadow's chest, his body rising off the ground slightly as she did. She them lowered back to the ground next to him, staying completely, and a bit creepily, quiet.

"What the heck were you thinking, you imbecile!" Funk continued shouting, as he started down the stairs. "I really don't see what you hoped to accomplish by beating up Shadow, but there's no good in it!"

"Lighten up, Funk." Endigo broke in, stepping up to the echidna as he reached ground level. "Shadow charged at her first. She was only defending herself."

"Whatever." Funk fumed, but calming a little. However, he then mumbled under his breath, "Bio engineered freak."

Unfortunately, Celestial heard this. She walked straight up to Funk, stared him in the eyes for a second, then punched him hard in the jaw, sending him to the ground. "Bye, Endigo." she made her way up the stairs, then out of the house, taking off and flying away fast once she was outside. As she did, tears started to stream down her face.

Back in the basement, Funk had struggled to his feet, his crutches in hand. He looked to Endigo, who shook his head. "Good job, Funk." the fox picked up the now unconscious Shadow and took him to the guest room, leaving the blue echidna to himself.

To be continued… 


	5. Reflections

Chp 04: Reflections

Salrose Desert- Endigo and Funk's House

Funk grumbled as he messed with another one of his inventions. In a few minutes, however, he had chucked it off his work bench angrily, just for missing a wire once. He then moved on to another of his creation, which was also discarded quickly. Usually, the blue echidna was a lot more focused, but right now, he was pissed. More than anything, he was angry about Endigo's cold attitude towards him. So he had insulted Celestial? No reason to make a federal case about it.

The injured mobian chucked a third invention away, slamming his fists into the table. "Endigo knows me. He knows I don't mean a lot of the things I say. Celestial's my friend just as much as his. It's just cause he likes her. He won't admit it, but it's true." the echidna sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Now all my friends are angry with me, I've got a wounded hero in my guest room, and one of the greatest evil being's has me on his death list." Funk let his head fall onto the table, another sigh passing through his lips. "What to do now?"

Meanwhile, upstairs, Endigo sat in his room on his bed, throwing a rubber ball back and forth with the wall. This was one of the few things that calmed him down. At this time, he was only trying to ease his worry about Celestial. He knew that the hedgird was prone to getting into trouble when she was angry, sad, are basically any mood other than 100 happy. And the only thing that put her there was usually beating the pulp out of some drunk jerk.

Endigo mindlessly let his hand flick back and forth a few times before he realized the ball hadn't been returning for a while. He got up to retrieve it when he noticed a picture of himself, Celestial, and Funk sitting on the night stand. It had been taken a little over two months ago, when the trio had spent the day at Twinkle Park. The fox smiled, pushing a lock of hair out of his eyes. "Things never stay good long, do they?"

Mystic Mansion- Rook's Lab

"You will bow to me!" the enraged bat shouted, shoving the electric rod into Omega's chest. The large metallic red robot slashed one of its large claws forward, but he died out from the charge, stopping midway. "Piece of trash!" Rook yelled, kicking the lifeless behemoth in the chest, causing him to topple over. The bat's blood was boiling from all that this E-100 had put him through.

In the start, Metal Sonic had taken over Omega through a simple assimilation control chip, but the maniacal blue bot didn't like the idea. He wanted Omega to belong to him without having to fuse with him in that way. So, he had put Rook in charge of reprogramming the clawed creation.

Rook now regretted having agreed to do it. He should have known straight of that it would be a near impossible job. As bad as Eggman was when it came to taking over the world, he was definitely a robotics genius. Rook had repaired Metal Sonic before, and he knew how complicated the circuitry was. And since Omega was a lot further along in production, he would be even more complicated. He learned that from first hand experience.

This had been the third time his tampering with Omega's systems had been useless, only leading to him getting the tar beaten out of himself by the massive robot. He stared at Omega, a spiteful look in his eyes. "I will figure you out, Omega. There's not a robot on this planet I can't understand. You might even be my Sistine Chapel, but I will understand you, I swear it." Rook turned to the exit and made his way out of the room.

Elsewhere, Feral sat in the Weapon's Room, polishing his favorite weapon, a dagger from the earl 20th century. The hilt was decorated with deeply detailed carvings of twin dragons, each head jutting out to one side. The blade was rather simple compared to the rest, just shooting up into a centric point. He knew it was a bit flashy, but he liked it none the less.

Suddenly, he shoved it into his skull, using it to flick out the bullets that had been fired at him earlier. As he finished, he pulled out a rag to wipe clean the mixture of blood and oil that was coming from the wounds. He smiled, a bit surprised that the echidna had even been able to hit him. He had a feeling that the next time they met, it wouldn't be as easy to take him down. He was actually looking forward to it.

Station Square

Celestial pulled her jacket close to her body, trying to block out the chill in the air. The sky above was pitch black, the only light provided by the streetlights. Her face was downcast, her thoughts lost in a mix of emotions. She was both angry, scared, sullen, and strangely happy in some way. For the most latter, she could barely explain it to herself. She only had a small feel of it, almost completely drowned out by the other three, but it was there.

But why? That was the question the black hedgird kept asking herself. She just knew that she had felt it first while fighting Shadow. "Could it be that I liked it? I always thought I would never do what GUN had programmed me to, but now… How can I like it so much though? I mean, I love to fight , but when I was attacking Shadow… it felt like it was something I needed.'

Celestial was brought out of her thoughts as she bumped into a muscle bound echidna, a wicked smile on his face. "Hey there. Haven't seen you around here before." Celestial looked around to see that she had wandered into one of the slums of the city. She sighed, feeling really bored with what she would probably have to do.

"Listen, idiot, I've been having a really bad day, so I'll say this once: back the f off."

The echidna chuckled. "Well, I didn't know you'd want to-" before he could finish, Celestial had jumped up and shoved both her talons into his face. She then flipped him hard, ramming him into the concrete sidewalk. He tried to get back to his feet, his face bloody and angry, but the hedgird quickly rammed her knee into his jaw. He fell back, unconscious.

"Idiot." Celestial took off, flying toward her current location of residence. As she went, only one though was in her head: she hadn't enjoyed that as much as she had beating up Shadow.

To be continued…

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of self reflection for each character. Next, the story will start speeding up .Any comments are welcome, so please drop a review. And thanks to Celestial and el knackered for the reviews, and glad I captured your characters well. Peace out. 


	6. Things Heat Up

Chp 05: Things Heat Up

Mystic Mansion- Metal's Keep

As Rook made his way into the room, he saw Feral leaning against a wall, his eyes closed and arms crossed. He smiled, saying, "Sleeping on the job, huh, Feral?"

The armadillo's eyes fluttered open, going towards the bat. He also smiled. "So, did Omega make you his bitch again last night?"

Rook frowned, angered by Feral bringing up the robot. "Shut it. I really don't feel like talking about E-123."

"Aw, let me guess. Is this because you were the catcher?" with that, the bat charged across the room, balling his hands into fists. As he was about to strike, however, Feral ducked to the ground and rolled forward, under the bat. He then whipped around, wrapping his arm around Rook's neck, holding the point of his knife at the skin. "You designed me to be a killing machine, remember?"

"Both of you, enough!" their master, Metal Sonic, was walking into the room. He had no mouth, but his eyes showed the anger in him. Feral pulled away from his teammate, returning the knife to his belt. "That's better. Now, we have plans to discuss."

Salrose Desert- Endigo and Funk's

Funk, after a long night at work, finally made his way upstairs for a bowl of cereal. When he got there, he noticed Endigo sitting at the table. They looked to each other a minute, before the echidna started, "Look, about last night… I really didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, Funk. I know you lose your temper… a lot. But it doesn't really matter right now. We have a famous hedgehog in our guest room, and we should probably try figure out what to do." a smile then came onto the fox's face. "Besides, Celestial's the one you should worry about, not me."

"Ha ha, very funny." the echidna said sarcastically, but a smile also coming onto his face. "Anyway, you're right. We need to figure something out about Shadow. It crossed my mind while I was working last night, and I think our best option is to wait for Shadow to awaken. Then, we can ask him what happened."

"Then I guess I should explain, eh?" the duo's head spun to the stairway, where Shadow the Hedgehog stood, his hand on the wrapped wound on his chest. His other was against the wall for support. "So, where should I start?"

Station Square- Celestial's Hideout

The hedgird's eyes shot open, her senses returning to her. She had had horrible dream just then, and she was drenched in sweat. She took a deep breath, looking around to find that she was alone, what had been happening in her head slowly drifting away from her. In a few minutes, all she could remember was Shadow, a blade in his hand, which had been covered in blood. Her blood.

Reality soon took hold again. Celestial remembered the events of the past 24 hours, and her fear of the dream was quickly replaced by anger towards Funk. She still couldn't believe what he had said to her. 'Bioengineered freak.' How could he say that. "And I thought we were friends."

She let loose her rage by punching one of the few support beams left in the run down apartment. It groaned menacingly before settling. She knew she pushed the beam farther into collapsing every time she did that, but she never thought about it until afterwards. Celestial sighed. She didn't know where to go from here. The hedgird slid to the floor against the beam, her head in her hands. For once, she was really confused.

Salrose Desert- Endigo and Funk's

"Alright, so what happened to you, Shadow?" Funk asked, before taking a sip from his coffee mug. They had taken some time for introductions, and making the hedgehog comfortable on the couch, but now it was time to get down to business.

Shadow sighed, resting his head on one of his fists. "It started a little over a month ago. Do you remember hearing anything about the Metal Overlord Incident?"

"Definitely." Endigo answered. "It was all over the news how Super Sonic stopped that monster from taking over the world."

"But if you remember, they never found Metal Sonic." Shadow continued. "That's because Omega and I took him. We thought we could change him, try and find out what made him act the way he did, but in the end-"

"He found out a way to take over the E-123 robot." Funk interjected, finishing the black hedgehog's sentence. "That's what happened, right?"

"Yeah. I woke up one day to find his claws around my neck. He had me pinned against a wall, that blue Sonic-bot watching and laughing. I was able to fight back, but I had to run once I got free. They had taken away the Chaos Emerald I was using, so I was powerless. I mean, I'm a good fighter, but a pair of killer robots was too much at the time. After a while, he started sending a pair of mercenaries, a bat and-"

"An armadillo?" Funk questioned.

"How did you know that?"

"We crossed paths the other day." Funk replied, rubbing his broken leg. "He came for you, but I fought back."

"Thanks, I guess." Shadow said, scratching his head.

"Look, now that we're all caught up, I think we should figure out where to go from here." Endigo said, breaking the awkward silence that had fallen over the apartment.

"Not much we can do." the echidna said. "Other than trying to find Metal Sonic."

GUN Headquarters- Interrogation Room

"Now listen, you're going to help us, whether you want to or not!" the buff GUN agent yelled, slamming his fists into the table. The guy sitting at the other end, however, just smiled.

"Look, buddy, you came into my home, shot me with a tranquilizer, then woke me up here, demanding I do this. Sorry, buddy, but if you want my help, you're going to have to pay me a lot more than the assurance of my living. Cause from what I'm hearing, that's not something you really can assure."

The other man growled, staring at the other darkly. The sitting mobian, however, just continued smiling. The agent sighed, saying, "Fine, I can get you up to 1G."

The mobian laughed out loud. "I expect that there's a ride waiting to take me home?"

"Alright, 10 grand, but not a penny more." the other thought for a moment, before a smile broke out on his face.

"You've got yourself a Hedgehog Hunter."

"Glad to work with you, Mr. Duck."

"Please, call me Bean."

To be continued…

Thanks again for the reviews, guys. And if anyone else is reading, please review! Peace. 


	7. Endigo's Bad Day

Chapter 06: Endigo's Bad Day

Station Square- Celestial's Hideout

As the freight elevator's doors slid open, Endigo stepped into his friend's keep. He looked around, hoping to see her somewhere, but the hedgird was nowhere to be seen. He sighed, his head dropping. The locator in his hand had begun humming, having been made to detect Shadow's DNA, which would be everywhere.

It had been built this way because Shadow had told them that Metal Sonic currently had a good bit of the dark hedgehog's blood coursing through his veins. The reason this had happened was because of one Omega's many experiments before he had gone from master to puppet. At any rate, Funk had whipped it up over night, and it had been given to Endigo, since he was the only one of the three not too damaged to get up and move around.

"What am I doing here?" the fox said to himself, sliding to the ground against the elevator doors. "I should be out trying to find Metal Sonic, the guy who plans to take over the world. Instead, I'm sitting in the somewhat apartment of the girl I like who's probably as pissed at me as she is at Funk. You'd think I was a stalker."

"Shut up, Endigo." a familiar voice said from the detector. He pulled it from his belt, looking at it strangely.

"Funk, is that you?" he asked quizzically.

"Yep. Turn it over." the fox flipped the device over, finding that it had slid open, revealing a screen Funk's smiling face was currently on. "I hope you know I finally have recorded proof that you like Celestial."

The fox frowned, a crimson glow coming to fur on his cheeks. "Funk, I'm gonna kill you for this."

"Whatever you say, lover boy." the echidna's eyes then flicked to the right, and Endigo heard an angry voice he knew was Shadow's. "Alright, alright. Endigo, the big man says to get out there and find Metal Sonic."

"Well tell him to calm down. The chances I'm finding his hideout today are slim, considering he could be anywhere on the planet, or even somewhere off it. And tell him I'm sorry I'm here. I don't even know why I came."

"Cause you think you need to apologize, which you don't. I made the mistake, bud, not you. I have to apologize to Celestial, not you." he heard more angry yelling. "Back off, you obsessive nut! Uh oh. Uh, Endigo, I got to run. Our house guest is hobbling towards me at a scarily fast rate. Bye." before the scene went completely dark, he saw Funk grabbing his crutches and moving as quickly as he could.

Endigo chuckled to himself, getting to his feet. "I guess he's right, I got to do my job. I'll worry about Celestial later." he rested against the doors again, looking around the room one last time. "I'll be back. Bye, Celeste." suddenly, the doors to the elevator lurched, the door opening. Losing his balance, the fox fell back, his head hitting the floor of the elevator hard. His eyes opened to see Celestial's surprised face, looking down at him. "Hi, Celeste."

Station Square- Main Street

The fox sighed, walking down the long sidewalk. He had once again made himself look stupid, pathetic, and needy. After his first two words, he had just stared a while, before Celestial had gotten angry, her emotions returning after the initial shock, and shoved his feet the rest of the way into the elevator and let the doors shut on him. "Things could definitely be better."

"I'm sure they could, pal." Endigo looked around, finding something strange about Main Street: it was deserted. He looked to see that the voice wasn't coming from the detector either.

"Who said that?" he asked. The answer to his question came in the form of four bombs dropping around him. His eyes widened, instinctively jumping out of the center. However, the explosion still threw the fox to the ground. He groaned, getting to his feet, wobbling a little bit.

"Nice reflexes." the voice said again. This time, someone appeared to take claim for it. From the rooftop, a green blur fell, slowing thanks to a dropped bomb. The explosion sent him a little bit higher again, which let him back flip clear of the smoke and land safely about five yards from Endigo. It was a green duck. "Name's Bean. And you are?"

"What's your big idea trying to blow me up, feather face?" the fox said angrily.

"Because, I know that you know where Shadow the Hedgehog is."

"How do you know that?"

"Considering how much I'm being paid, I've made it my business to know."

:Well, I hope you know, I'm not going to tell you anything." a smile came onto the duck's face.

"I was hoping you'd say that." the duck pulled out a pair of bombs. "Shall we dance?"

To be continued… 


	8. Station Square Strife

Chp. 07: Station Square Strife

Station Square- Main Street

Endigo ducked another punch from his feathered opponent. Bean, having used all his bombs, was now going hand to hand with the purple fox.

"What do you hope to accomplish from this, Bean?" Endigo asked of the duck, kicking him hard in the chest, sending him stumbling back. "What good can come from working with Metal Sonic?"

"Metal Sonic?" Bean stopped attacking Endigo, jumping back. Angrily, he shouted, "Now listen up. I might not be winning any greatest people awards, but I would never work with that despicable robot.!"

"Then why are you looking for Shadow?"

Bean thought for a moment. He could tell the fox that he was working with GUN, but he figured that would only exacerbate things. "I have my reasons." he stated simply.

"They can't be good ones, considering you tried to kill me for info." Endigo growled.

Bean smirked. "Well, at least I'm not a stalker, lover boy."

Endigo shouted angrily, charging forward. He kicked the duck with a flurry of punches and kicks. Bean flew back, flipping high up and landing on a pole. "Well, you're definitely defensive." Bean sighed. "Listen, that was out of line, I know, but you made a crack about me."

"Just tell me what you want."

"I just need a chance to speak with Shadow. He can help me in a great way. If you want, I'll leave as soon as I talk with him, but truthfully, if you're going after Metal Sonic, I want in."

"What? Why would you care about fighting Metal?" Endigo asked, puzzled.

Bean looked down, which, since he was high above, was a face Endigo could still see. His hand went to something under his red scarf. "Let's just say, I owe him something." Bean dropped from the pole, landing hard on the pavement. "Ouch."

"Alright, I guess you can come with me. But you're going to have to get good ole' Funk's permission. That's mainly because he controls the house, and he can tell it to kill you."

Bean raised a brow. "That's just a bit scary."

"Funk is a bit scary." Endigo chuckled. "Actually, Funk is a lot scary. Come on." with that, Endigo turned to head back to the plane, followed by Bean the Dynamite.

Salrose Desert- Base

Funk yawned, putting down the silver orb he was tinkering with. Endigo had yet to contact the base, as they had decided to call it, since he was at Celestial's, so he was working on his newest invention.

"Can't you do something from here?" Shadow said, annoyed. He was getting sick of playing the waiting game. He wanted to go out and kill Metal Sonic as soon as possible. "You have so many machines, can't one of them track him down?"

Agitatedly, Funk looked over his shoulder to the hedgehog sitting on the couch nearby. "For the last time, Shadow, until we heal, we're useless. As for these inventions, no, none of them can track Metal Sonic, because I never thought I'd need an invention for tracking Metal Sonic. Right now, all we can do is wait for Endigo."

"I still say you should do something?" the stubborn bioorganic being said, huffing.

"Oh, shut up!" the blue echidna yelled. He was sick of his current guest's annoying interjectors every few minutes. "I can't believe you're supposed to be the ultimate life form. Be patient!"

"I'm sorry if my presence annoys you, but you can shove it."

"If my leg wasn't broken, I'd-"

"Do nothing, cause you're leg is broken." Shadow cut in, smirking.

"Jerk." Funk was beginning to wonder if just handing the hedgehog over to Metal Sonic would be a bad idea.

Celestial's Hideout

The hedgird let out a scream of angry once again, slamming her fist through the support beam. She couldn't believe Endigo. Not only had he snuck into her place, but he'd also acted like a freak when she showed up, just staring at her. She began to kick the beam as hard, but she stopped, knowing it could topple and cause the roof to cave in on her.

However, she found that it wouldn't matter, because at that moment, a large red robot burst through the ceiling, a smaller blue one on its back. Too shocked to react, she was quickly taken down, and the apartment was soon deserted.

To be continued…

Hey, guys, sorry that I haven't updated anything for a while, but school's been on me for a while. However, I've now got three weeks of nothing to do but write. After that, I'll be, starting on June 25th, in Jordan, visiting my relatives. Til then ,I'll write. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed. 


	9. Ultimatum

Chapter 08

Mystic Mansion-Cell

Celestial groaned as she awakened, a sharp pain in here head. She opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by darkness, only able to make out a slight glow from a grate in the cell door. "What is going on?"

"You've been brought into my keep." Came a cold voice, one that sent a shiver down Celestial's back.

"Who's there?" she asked, getting to her feet, the pain hitting her worse for disobediently trying to move while it was there.

There was a laugh. "I am just someone concerned with the way you're life is going, dear Celestial."

Her eyes widened. "How do you know my name? Oh god, am I… back in GUN?" she knew she couldn't take it, being in control of them again.

The laugh came again. "Oh, do not worry about that, Celestial. I am the opposite of GUN. They are quite corrupted by there own mission for a utopian world. I, however, have a clear view on making the world a good place for creatures such as yourself."

"Who are you?" she asked again, fear in her voice. She hated this darkness. She couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, and she didn't even know where she was.

"My identity is unimportant for now. I simply give you an ultimatum."

"What's that? Die or join you. I'm sick of organization's that think they're helping the world through threats and-"

"You misunderstand. I have no thoughts of killing you, my miracle."

"Miracle? What are you talking about?"

"You do not see yourself as such? A perfect being created through technology and organics. You, one made with such power, and you don't think you are great?"

"I'm used to being called a freak, or a monstration. And that's what I am. A being that was created in a test tube, treated as nothing but a killing machine, shown no love. SO, even if you consider me perfect, I'm not. I'm just an uncared for monster. Even the people I thought were my friends think so. A 'bioengineered freak.'" She said, quoting Funk's words. Tears were welling up in her eyes.

"You are nothing of the sort. You are someone who deserves to be treated as royalty. Someone who-"

"Just give me your damn offer." She said angrily, tears rolling down her cheeks. She pushed the quills covering her eyes back, only for them to fall back into the same position.

"You can either go back to the loneliness and cold that you've felt for you're entire life. Or, you can help me, help make the world understand what creatures like you and I are good for. What do you say?"

Celestial sat there, curled up, thinking for longer than she knew. A home? People who cared for her? She'd never thought that would be possible, even with Funk and Endigo. What could she say? She thought over it more than anything else in her life. But finally, she gave her answer.

And Metal Sonic, though he couldn't smile, sure as hell would have.

To be continued…

First, sorry for taking so long with this. Secondly, sorry for it being short. But, on the second, I won't be seeing this computer for a year, and I have no way to transport the words I've written, so, a short chapter. However, I promise a very long chapter when I next update. Actually, whenever I make a promise, it fails, don't it. Well, it'll be longer than this. Peace.


End file.
